Tag: phantom ranch

The Grand Canyon is one of those places you have to visit to understand its scale. A picture or video will never do its beauty or its “grandness” justice. You have to be on the dusty trail as it goes down, down, down with the canyon walls rising up higher and higher next to you as you feel smaller and smaller.

If hiking, you’ll want to look up, not down at your feet, but you’ll need to make sure they don’t stray off the steep trail. You’ll see how often the mules—who do this hike weekly—rest, and you’ll realize this place is bigger than you imagined, even after you read this.

Below are tips to help you plan a trip to hike the Grand Canyon in late fall: getting there, where to stay, what to bring, and hiking the canyon.

Getting There

Hiking down the Grand Canyon and staying at Phantom Ranch was about the only plan we had during a 10-day road-trip vacation. We flew into Denver, cross-country skied in Breckenridge, drove to Grand Junction to see friends, and then drove from there to the Grand Canyon. If you drive in that direction, you can stop for a hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

The Hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah.

If you can, arrive during daylight to Grand Canyon National Park, or you will be negotiating hairpin curves in pitch black with a gaping abyss off to the side for many, many miles. We arrived at night and made it—but you have been warned!

Where to Stay

Above the Canyon

The night before your hike, stay in the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim of the canyon. A simple room with no shower but a private toilet, sink and double bed was perfect for us. You can pay less for a room if you forgo the private bathroom or pay more for a cabin.

[Note: If you were unable to get reservations to stay at the Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon or to reserve a meal at the ranch, the Bright Angel transportation desk within the lodge is where you check in to get on the waiting list. The morning you would like to hike down, be there in person at 7am.]

In the morning, we awoke early, grabbed coffee in the Bright Angel Restaurant and watched the sunrise over the Grand Canyon, which is right behind the lodge.

At the Bottom of the Canyon

There’s only one place to stay—the Phantom Ranch—and you can only get there by foot, mule or raft. But it is worth the trip! Phantom Ranch opens up reservations a year in advance. You can luck out and get reservations on shorter notice (we got ours a week in advance), but you have to keep calling to check in and see if someone cancelled.

We stayed in the men’s and women’s dorms. You can also camp or reserve a cabin.

Phantom Ranch is on the other side of the Colorado River. You have to cross a giant steel bridge to get there. You can see it if you look closely.

Make sure to order a meal when you get your reservations because you will be hungry. The meals are served family-style at big tables in The Canteen. There is something about the people who get off the beaten path—more open, friendlier—and you will have fun talking to your table mates from all over the U.S. and world.

After all the dinner shifts are done, The Canteen opens up again for hanging out and you can have a Grand Canyon Brewery beer or play board games or cards. They also have souvenirs you can only get at the bottom of the canyon and snacks to keep you energized on your eventual walk up.

The rangers say the mules are very calm and dependable. The one behind me was in a bad mood.

What to Bring

If you’re carrying your bag and not paying for duffel service, you don’t want to bring much more than the essentials (layered non-cotton clothing, hiking poles, high-calorie snacks, and lots of water), but here are a few things worth adding to your backpack.

Book: There is no cell service, so it may be worth it to hoof a book down the canyon.

Flashlight: In case you find yourself hiking in the dark, looking for the morning coffee (it can be found!) or reading your book in the dorm.

Earplugs: If you are a staying in the men’s dorm, these will help you get a good night’s sleep.

National Parks Passport Book: Don’t forget your passport to get the stamp you can only get at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Hiking the Canyon

Hiking in the Grand Canyon in November means beautiful fall colors.

You can choose to hike either the Bright Angel Trail (trailhead near the Bright Angel Lodge) or the South Kaibib Trail, which you need to take a shuttle to. The Bright Angel Trail is about 9.3 miles one-way. The South Kaibib is shorter at 6.8 miles, but steeper. We took the Bright Angel both ways. Here’s some FAQs from the National Park Service on hiking the canyon.

Hiking down, down, down through the layers of the Grand Canyon.

The hike to Phantom Ranch is not easy, even if you are a fit person. Consider staying two nights at Phantom Ranch so you don’t have to hike back up the next day. We only stayed one night, and when we reached the top of the canyon, we could barely walk our calf muscles were so sore. As sore as we were, we were proud of our accomplishment, as you will be!

We made it!

We hobbled to our rental car and headed to Flagstaff for tacos, and then onward to Albuquerque for a Breaking Bad self-guided tour on Thanksgiving morning.

The highlight of our wandering road trip was definitely hiking down the Grand Canyon. From the gorgeous and challenging hike to the people you meet at the bottom, it is a trip you will always remember.

The week of Thanksgiving, Andy and I flew to Denver, rented a car, and road-tripped through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and back through Colorado.

We were struggling through a November sub-zero cold snap as well as major restructuring at our company, so we broke out into the sunny big blue skies of the west. The world felt big and our imaginations expanded to match.

Highlights were seeing our friends and meeting their adorable new baby in Grand Junction, having Maria Carey jaywalk in front of our car in Aspen, a Breaking Bad self-guided tour in Albuquerque, and hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

We drove into Grand Canyon National Park in the pitch black, aware of a gaping hole next to the road. We jumped out of bed to see the Grand Canyon at sunrise.

The bottom of the Grand Canyon is a different world–only reached by foot, mule or raft. We stayed overnight in the men’s and women’s dorms of Phantom Ranch. Andy picked me up from my dorm after dinner for a 50’s-style date of card playing and a beer in The Canteen.

The next morning I picked up Andy at his dorm around 6am, telling him I had found coffee. We sat in the dark at a picnic table under the stars talking until family-style breakfast was served. Without smart phones to distract us and remind us how things were, we thought big about how things could be.

When we hiked out of the Canyon that day, we felt the tension of both wanting to reach the top to rest our cramped muscles, and never wanting to reach the top. But we kept walking, reached the top, hobbled into our rented Camry and were off to New Mexico.

Two days after being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we found ourselves at 11,000 feet crossing Molas Pass in Colorado.

We were busy on our trip, but not once in a hurry. Somewhere on the road, we talked about what we wanted to take with us. For me it was the feeling of bigness and possibility. As small as a current situation might seem, never losing that feeling within of the big sky and big canyon.

The word grand must have held more meaning when this place was named. We never imagined the many layers we would walk through to reach the bottom.